Facing Demons
by Nevara Alyss
Summary: On a mission to find who is killing ex-Cerberus scientists, Shepard faces her demons when she and a man she thought was dead cross paths. Can she endure the turmoil of the numerous confrontations she will be faced with when her only ally is a man who was once a friend and now an enemy?


The sun was coming down over the mountains of the Sonoran desert. The cascading blur of oranges and reds filled the sky, setting it on fire as a last act of defiance before fading into shadow. Cactus blossoms perfumed the summer night as crickets and grasshoppers chirped as the desert floor cooled to nearly bearable.

C.J. wiped the sweat from her brow and continued through the cactus laden dirt. It was her first mission after reactivation from military leave. She wholeheartedly accepted it. The action would have kept her mind off what she deamed more pressing issues, such as the whereabouts of the missing Normandy and her crew. It had been three years since the Reaper war and her recovery was long and hard. Some questioned whether she was psychologically fit to return to active duty, but she assured them that being strapped to a bed for the long haul was more insanity inducing than what she had endured.

It was obviously a lie and the task at hand seemed to be of little consequence: stop a rogue former Alliance operative from killing ex-Cerberus scientists. She'd spent weeks tracking the man down, but from the scattered reports she'd received from some of Dr. Archer's associate, he was in the vicinity of some old mines. Security was sparce and they all wanted to move on with their lives. Which she thought was a valid excuse. Cerberus was all but dead and gone, so there was no chance of them interfering with her investigation.

She was amidst a preliminary scan of the area when a twig snapped behind her. She drew her side arm at the interruption, but found nothing. Dust flew into the air and she tried to reassure herself that she was alone in a vast desert. She continued walking, the limp in her leg became more apparent as time went on and her joints screamed with pain as she trounced down a hill at a slow clip. Sand slid out from under her sending her toppling to the bottom in a heap of armor, sweat and dirt. She groaned at the mistake she had made and dusted herself off. Her head whipped around feverishly and wiping what dust she could from her forehead continued in the direction of the last abduction.

She was about a klick out from where some of the scientists had set up a lab to watch and calculate the possible environmental damage from the massive element zero cores the Reaper corpses used. Lights twinkled from the small encampment when a loud explosion rocked the ground beneath her. A large plume of fire and smoke billowed into the air and C.J. was at a full sprint to the location.

Her lungs screamed for air, her muscles ached from exertion and the heat of the flames could be felt as she drew closer. A secondary explosion rumbled through her as the faint sounds of frantic screams filled the air with the smell of burning equipment and flesh. Her eyes stung with tears from the chemical smoke and she placed her breather on as she scrambled through the debris. Bodies laid around the central of the complex in an odd pattern. From the directionality of the blast radius, they were all standing around the device.

_Now, either they didn't know there was a bomb a few feet away or…_

The soft jingle of a spent thermal clip skittered across the ground away from her. She looked around and saw the tell-tale signs of gunfire. Holes of every size peppered the charred walls. She leaned over a fallen wall to look for survivors, and met with nothing. The room was empty. No chairs, desks, or lab equipment were even there. In an instant, she felt a pit form in the bottom of her stomach. Her hand fell to her sidearm instinctively and she held her breath briefly, hoping that her paranoia was nothing but an overreaction to what she'd seen.

"Something's just not right," she said to herself with a frown. She activated her comm channel and uttered, "Is anyone getting this?"

Her answer came in the form of a sharp blow to the head that sent her to her knees in a daze. She shook her head and tried to stand but was met with an even harder strike than before. Her vision went black, the world spun faster than it was meant to and the only noise she heard were the cocking of guns and footfalls coming toward her. Her eyes fell on her side arm mere inches away.

_I just need to…_

Her fingers graced the grip and her hope renewed as she inched nearer. She was confused and every thought had to be processed and pushed aside to make this one movement work. She was nearing elation when a boot came slamming down on top of her exposed hand. C.J. let out a yelp of pain as the heel ground her fingers into the concrete. Several more blows came down on top of her. The back of her head throbbed and she could barely maintain consciousness any longer when a jolt of pain shot through her spine. She was gasping, winded, worn by the trouble she was enduring.

She lifted her head slightly to face the shadowy figure over her.

He stared down at her before turning to the man at his side.

"Bring her. Our boss wants to see her."


End file.
